Another sign question.....

The Town has a permanent moveable type sign at the community centre, in the institutional zone, which is mainly intended to be used for advertising community events but from time to time they allow a local business to advertise a sale or some other commercial activity.

The sign is much larger than what we are intending to allow in the zone. In addition, in the revised by-law we are intending to allow only 1 sq ft of commercial sponsorship on signs in the institutional or open space zones.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this sign? Although in the office our initial reaction is to not allow commercial use of the sign we don't think this option will be acceptable since there is some revenue from the commercial advertisers.

IMO, the town is asking for trouble when it allows the use of its sign for commercial purposes. Does your ordinance permit off-premesis signs or billborads? If not, then you are creating a legal problem for yourselves when you use your statutory authority to prohibit an activity, but then allow an exception only through the town's sign. Ask the city attorney for an opinion.

Originally posted by Cardinal IMO, the town is asking for trouble when it allows the use of its sign for commercial purposes. Does your ordinance permit off-premesis signs or billborads? If not, then you are creating a legal problem for yourselves when you use your statutory authority to prohibit an activity, but then allow an exception only through the town's sign. Ask the city attorney for an opinion.

The town does not prohibit off-site signage - so that really isn't a problem. And while I do agree that the sign should be only used for community uses, the commercial use has been happening for some time and I think it will be hard to stop it.

Giving yourself a sign that is larger than what you allow others is asking for trouble. I'd say you either have to reduce the size of the sign, or allow equal sizes for others in the same zoning district.